and will reportedly not celebrate Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham this year.
According to Hello! magazine, Beatrice, 36, and Eugenie, 34, will be spending the holidays with their respective inlaws. This will be the first time the royals will spend the holiday season away from their royal family members since their respective weddings.
Beatrice has been married to since July 2020. The couple share daughter Sienna, 3, and are currently expecting baby number two. (Edoardo, 41, is also a father to 8-year-old Wolfie, whom he shares with ex-fiancée .)
Eugenie, for her part, wed in 2018. The pair are the parents of sons August, 3, and Ernest, 18 months.
Beatrice and Eugenie — the daughters of and — have traditionally spent Christmas at the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England with and other members of the royal family. The only time the princesses did not attend was in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Independent previously reported that Beatrice and Eugenie’s parents will also not be spending Christmas at Sandringham. The news came shortly after reports surfaced of Andrew’s alleged connection to a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy.
In a December 14 statement to BBC, the Duke of York, 64, claimed that he “ceased all contact” with the individual. Andrew’s office further claimed that Andrew met the man “through official channels” and “nothing of a sensitive nature [was] ever discussed.”
According to the outlet, the alleged spy — who has been referred to as H6 — was previously banned from the U.K. in 2023 following security court proceedings. Judges were told that H6 allegedly tried to gain Andrew’s influence and was subsequently invited to his birthday party in 2020.
Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in the U.K. denied the espionage claim. “Some individuals in the U.K. are always eager to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories targeting China,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on Andrew’s latest scandal since he is a non-working royal. In 2020, Andrew was stripped of his title by his late mother, , and forced to take a step back from his official duties and patronages after he was sued for sexual misconduct. Andrew denied the allegations. In 2022, Prince Andrew settled the lawsuit out of court.
While Andrew is no longer a working member of the royal family, Beatrice has taken on some extra responsibilities. Last month, she stepped in for Charles, 75, when she attended The King’s Foundation’s Future Textiles exhibition in London. During the event, she met with the foundation’s executives and several students.
